Genetic engineering: The pushback against GMO foods (with video)

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Demand for food free of genetically modified organisms is growing fast and nowhere stronger than in British Columbia.

North American retail sales of Non-GMO Project verified foods have grown more than 300 per cent in three years, from $1.3 billion in 2011 to $5 billion today.

Products that display both an organic and non-GMO certification are out-selling their competitors five to one at Whole Foods Markets, company spokesman Joe Kennedy recently told a conference organized by the B.C. Food Processors Association.

The market share for organic groceries in B.C. is already double that of the rest of Canada, according to the Canada Organic Trade Association. Its 2013 market report found that two thirds of British Columbians buy organic foods each week and more than half of those surveyed said they want to avoid GMOs in their food.

A recent Ipsos Reid poll of 1,200 Canadians conducted for BioAccess Commercialization Centre, a non-profit organization that supports the natural foods industry, suggests that British Columbians are more likely to look for a non-GMO label than other Canadians.

But the Ipsos Reid survey also found widespread confusion about which crops, fruit and vegetables are likely to be the product of genetic engineering.

More than 60 per cent of respondents identified strawberries as a product of genetic engineering, but there are no commercially grown GE strawberries. Only 42 per cent identified tofu as a GMO product, despite the fact that more than 90 per cent of soybeans grown in North America are genetically engineered.

So many shoppers are convinced that perfect, red hothouse tomatoes are the result of genetic engineering that B.C.-based grower Houweling’s Tomatoes obtained Non-GMO Project verification. There are no GE tomatoes on store shelves in Canada.

Explaining GMOs

Genetically engineered or GE life forms — popularly known as genetically modified organisms or GMOs — are created when the genetic code of an organism is altered to express a desirable trait or when code containing undesirable traits is silenced or removed. Much of the opposition to genetic engineering of foods is focused on the practice of inserting genetic code from one organism into another, which cannot occur under natural circumstances.

At its heart, genetic engineering is a short cut that scientists devised to speed up the work of selective breeding of plants into more useful and productive forms and to resist threats from the environment. Such selective breeding has been going on for most of human history and nearly every food crop grown today has been genetically modified through this older process.

What could have been a public relations coup for biotechnology with the promise to provide the world more nutritious, less expensive food using fewer resources has become a nasty fight driven by dislike of corporate power and fears of uncontrolled environmental and health effects. Companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont and Bayer CropScience, which dominate the biotechnology landscape with billions of dollars in sales, are fighting allegations that they are using intellectual property law to monopolize the world’s seeds and by extension the world’s food supply.

Anti-GMO scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini produced a study purporting to show that herbicide-resistant corn fed to rats caused tumours. His work was condemned by scientists all over the world with accusations of poor design and statistical cherry-picking, and finally withdrawn by the journal that published it.

Unhelpful experiments, such as the creation of a glow-in-the-dark cat in South Korea, fuelled public hysteria and distrust of potentially useful products, such as fast-growing farmed salmon, which has not yet been approved for human consumption.

The battle over genetic engineering of food crops is being waged on multiple fronts by farmers, legislators, activists and scientists around the world, all trying to separate fear from fact. Fears over the safety of GMOs have given rise to a vitriolic public debate, consumer boycotts and a political battle about whether GE crops and products made from them should be labelled as such.

Shoppers will decide

But whether we as a society are able to make peace with this fast-growing technology will ultimately be settled in the grocery store, by shoppers.

“You vote for or against genetically engineered foods with everything that you buy,” said Teresa Lynne, a campaigner for GE Free BC. “It’s obvious companies are responding to the pressure.”

Responding to an online campaign dubbed No GMOs, Cheerios!, General Mills announced that it would find sources of cornstarch and sugar produced from plants that have not been altered through gene insertion to replace the tiny amounts present in the popular breakfast cereal. The rest of the company’s product line is unchanged.

Far more important is the emergence of Non-GMO Project certification, one of the fastest growing labelling programs in the North American food industry.

The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization that provides certification of foods made without genetically modified organisms.

What started as a collaboration between Toronto’s Big Carrot Market and The Natural Grocery Company of Berkeley, Calif., has certified 14,000 products in less than 10 years.

“I feel like we don’t know enough about the long-term impacts of GMOs on the people that consume them, but on the environment as well,” said Samantha Agtarap, a mother of two children, three and five.

“I prefer to buy organic and local.”

Agtarap, an engineering consultant and co-owner of a Port Moody fitness centre, steers clear of packaged foods and avoids fruits and vegetables that are most likely to have pesticide residues.

“We don’t eat soy or corn very often, because they are GMO,” she said.

More than 40 per cent of Canadians agree with the statement GMO foods are unsafe, according to the Ipsos Reid study. More than three quarters of British Columbians profess awareness and understanding of the issues surrounding genetic engineering in the food industry, the most of any province.

Many of the poll’s findings reveal deep suspicion of the food industry and the willingness of government to protect them from threats. More than 70 per cent of Canadians say they would avoid buying foods containing GMOs. Only 15 per cent of British Columbians who are aware of GMOs believe government would protect them from health risks associated with GMO foods, by far the lowest level of confidence of any province.

It has only been two decades since the first seeds genetically altered to resist pests and survive the application of pesticides hit the market. But acceptance by farmers in Canada and the United States has been strong, generating seed sales of $10 billion last year for Monsanto alone. Around 90 per cent of corn, sugar beet, soy and canola produced in North America is grown from genetically engineered seeds, according to Aaron Sanger, verification program manager for the Non-GMO Project.

Today, more than 75 per cent of conventional processed foods in a typical supermarket contain ingredients derived from GMOs, a figure researched by the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Proponents quote that number to demonstrate the safety of GMOs, while opponents prefer to characterize the quiet proliferation of such products as a large, uncontrolled science experiment, with North American consumers acting in the role of guinea pigs.

Most of us have likely been eating foods made from genetically engineered crops — along with meats and dairy from animals fed GE corn and soy — for many years. Virtually every product outside the produce aisle that doesn’t have an organic or non-GMO certification is likely to contain something — sugar, oil, starch or protein — derived from GE crops.

Many of the world’s leading scientific organizations have declared — based on the evidence available — that GMOs pose no threat to human health. According to the non-profit Gene Literacy Project, the list includes the American Medical Association, the Royal Society of Medicine, the European Commission, the National Academy of Sciences and the World Health Organization. Even in France, the heart of anti-GMO sentiment, the French Academy of Science allows that “all criticisms against GMOs can be largely rejected by strictly scientific criteria.”

But if that is true, is the war already over? Should we pack it in and move on to the next issue?

The market research firm Packaged Facts predicts the U.S. market for non-GMO and organic labelled foods and beverages will grow at a rate of nearly 13 per cent annually and could make up 30 per cent of the total food and beverage market in 2017, representing $264 billion in sales.

More than 20 U.S. states are in various stages of deciding whether to require food containing ingredients derived from GMOs to be labelled. Recent plebiscites in California and Washington failed, while Maine and Connecticut passed conditional GMO labelling initiatives that are not yet in effect.

Politicians are taking notice at home, too. Anti-GMO group GE Free BC helped convince mayors and city councillors at the Union of B.C. Municipalities to call on the provincial government to outlaw production of genetically engineered plants and animals. At least 14 municipalities have passed resolutions banning GE technology, though they have no jurisdiction to dictate what farmers plant.

A campaign launched by GE Free BC and the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network against the genetically engineered non-browning Arctic Apple in development by the B.C.-based Okanagan Specialty Fruits will attempt to kill the market for the fruit before it can be approved for sale, said Lynne.

Like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Health Canada does not require foods or products made from GE crops to be labelled, though it does conduct safety testing of all new foods before they are introduced to the marketplace.

Growers and processors are allowed to voluntarily label foods as genetically engineered, but so far not one has done so.

From a practical standpoint, it might be easier to label the foods that do not contain ingredients from GE crops, which is precisely what the Non-GMO Project does.

“You can go out and buy non-GMO products without a government labelling initiative,” said Sanger of the Non-GMO Project.

“It’s your choice and it doesn’t require any law.”

Sanger was disappointed by recent failed ballot initiatives in the U.S., but not surprised given the amount of money spent by the food industry to defeat them.

“Consumers don’t care what is in TV ads, they care what is in their food,” said Sanger.

“We already have $5 billion worth of foods with our seal on it and that shows that people are voting with their wallets.”

Food processors and distributors that seek Non-GMO Project verification can offer a level of transparency and assurance that is not guaranteed by an organic certification.

Left Coast Naturals recently announced that it will insist its suppliers confirm non-GMO status of products not already certified organic by the end of 2015 according to brand manager Trish Kelly. Products that contain ingredients from GE crops will be eliminated from the firm’s product line.

Organic standards do not allow the use of genetically engineered seeds for crops, nor the use of GE feed for livestock, but there is little testing to detect the accidental presence of GMOs in organic products. Non-GMO Project verification requires high-risk ingredients in products be tested to confirm that they contain less than 0.9 per cent material from GE plants and that the products use a segregated supply chain to prevent contact with conventionally grown products.

Left Coast will join Houweling’s Tomatoes, Silver Hills Sprouted Bakery and Nature’s Path on the list of B.C. firms that sell Non-GMO Project verified products. Whole Foods, with nine stores in B.C., last year committed to labelling all foods that contain GMOs by 2018, the first national chain to do so.

“Is it possible to take GMOs right out of your diet? Yes, but you have to buy organic, you have to read labels. As more people source non-GMO ingredients and buy organic, it will bring the cost down,” said Lynne.

Genetic engineering: The pushback against GMO foods (with video)

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